White Chocolate Berry Heart Bark

Do you hear that?  That is the sound of every heart in the room going pitter-patter as they look longingly at the dessert table and wait for a piece of this scrumptious heart bark.  This pretty chocolate treat is incredibly easy to make, needs just a few ingredients and takes a little time and patience.  It is a great make ahead dessert, it can be put together several days before you serve it.

While peppermint bark is the happening bark at Christmas time, heart bark will be all the rage for Valentine's Day.  This dessert has white chocolate for the background, setting the stage for milk and dark chocolate hearts, berries and raspberry jam. Break it up and serve it as is or serve with raspberry or strawberry ice cream.  What a performance!

Ingredients

24 ounces of good quality White Chocolate (I recommend Ghirardelli (R). Do not use white chocolate chips as they won't spread easily.)

6 or 7 good quality Milk Chocolate Hearts

6 or 7 Dark Chocolate Hearts

1/2 cup Mixed Dried Berries

1/3 cup Seedless Raspberry Jam at room temperature

Instructions

Outline an 12 x 8 rectangle on a piece of parchment paper.

Turn the parchment over and place on a baking sheet.  You want to see the outline but don't want your chocolate to touch the ink or pencil.

Stir the room temperature jam until it has no lumps and is fluid.  DO not heat!

Lay out chocolate hearts and berries.

Break up white chocolate into small pieces and place in an ample size glass microwave safe bowl. Reserve a few pieces to help the melted chocolate cool down and become shiny.

Heat microwave on low power, stirring at 30 second intervals.  It won't look like it is melting at first, but chocolate burns and seizes easily so it must be melted slowly.  Master chocolatiers, like Jacques Torres. will always temper their chocolates using a thermometer, but if you carefully follow these directionsyou will get excellent results.

Once tiny pieces remain that are not melted, remove from microwave and add reserved chocolate pieces.  Stir until all are melted.

Pour onto parchment paper, spreading to fill in the confines of the rectangular outline.

Place teaspoons of jam for form a heart shape.  Drag down bottoms with sharp knife.

Place milk and dark hearts intermittently and pressing down slightly.

Fill in empty spaces with mixed berries.

Let harden overnight at room temperature.

Cut into pieces.